International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity

AN EVENING OF SOLIDARITY WITH THE CUBAN PEOPLE

Featuring Kenia Serrano Puig, President of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP)

Friday November 13, 7:30pm

East Bay Center for the Performing Arts

339 11th Street, Richmond CA 94801-3105

Doors Open 6:30pm

$10-20 Donation at the Door

(nobody turned away for lack of funds)

Students and children free admission

This
will be a unique opportunity to hear from the Cuban perspective about
the new stage of U.S.-Cuba relations and the role that the U.S. Cuba
solidarity movement can play in ending the U.S. blockade.

ICAP
is a social organization founded on December 30, 1960 for the purpose
of promoting and explaining to the peoples of the world the relations of
solidarity that sparked the Cuban Revolution. ICAP is the vehicle to
reach around the globe to people who are in solidarity with Cuba. ICAP
is that interface that strengthens the network of solidarity, while
representing the Cuban people, and delivering a strong message that
solidarity not only benefits Cuba but the peoples of the world who are
aspiring to promote the idea that a better world is possible for all.

Initiated by the International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity

On November 15 and 16 the
heads of governments of the G20 — the world’s 20 largest economies —
along with the heads of their central banks, as well as the top bankers
of the world, will be holding their annual summit meeting, which is
taking place this year in Turkey.

Please support this call to make November 15, the first day of the G20 Summit – A SAY NO TO CAPITALISM AND RACISM DAY. Endorse this call and help to build the protest in NYC (and elsewhere)

The
next G20 summit will be the most important G20 meeting since the global
financial crash of 2008. The current volatility in global financial
markets is a sign that the world capitalist system is entering a new,
more intractable and more violent crisis.

No
matter what the official G20 meeting agenda says, the question on the
next G20 summit’s agenda (which in reality is dominated by the
super-rich of the U.S. and the West) will be: What must be done to
rescue world capitalism and the 1% that profit from its perpetuation?

Ultimately,
this means that the people of the world will be subjected to more
unbearable inequality, poverty, hunger, homelessness, gentrification,
neo-liberalism, austerity, more joblessness, more low wages, more war
and occupation and the even greater prospect of a planet that is rapidly
exhausting its capacity to sustain life.

JUST
AS OMINOUS AND DANGEROUS, the deepening world economic and political
crisis will create an even greater opportunity for the manifestation of
racism and fascism.

The
police war against Black people in the United States that has given
rise to the powerful Black Lives Matter movement, as well as the war
against Arab, African, Asian, Muslim, Indigenous and Latino/a migrants
from the borders of Europe to the U.S.-Mexican border are examples of
the intersection between capitalism and racism.

The
time has come for progressive forces across the world to stand up and
say that capitalism can’t be reformed and should not be saved.

We
will no longer tolerate the system killing, oppressing, marginalizing,
or scapegoating people of Color, migrants, poor people, women, lesbian,
gay, bi, trans and queer people, people with disabilities, young people
and all working people.

What will happen at the event?

EditThis event is part of the Global Climate March.
On November 30th, world leaders meet in Paris to start negotiating the
next global climate deal. That’s why, the day before, people around the
world will take to the streets and push leaders at every level of
government to commit to 100% clean energy. Together, we can push the
world towards a climate deal that gets us off dirty energy and unleashes
clean energy for all. Let's make history -- RSVP on the right for this Global Climate March event!

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

Commute Kevin Cooper's Death Sentence

Sign the Petition:http://www.savekevincooper.org/pages/petition.php

Urge
Gov. Jerry Brown to commute Kevin Cooper's death sentence. Cooper has
always maintained his innocence of the 1983 quadruple murder of which he
was convicted. In 2009, five federal judges signed a dissenting opinion
warning that the State of California "may be about to execute an
innocent man." Having exhausted his appeals in the US courts, Kevin
Cooper's lawyers have turned to the Inter American Commission on Human
Rights to seek remedy for what they maintain is his wrongful conviction,
and the inadequate trial representation, prosecutorial misconduct and
racial discrimination which have marked the case. Amnesty International
opposes all executions, unconditionally.

"The
State of California may be about to execute an innocent man." - Judge
William A. Fletcher, 2009 dissenting opinion on Kevin Cooper's case

Kevin Cooper has been on death row in California for more than thirty years.

In
1985, Cooper was convicted of the murder of a family and their house
guest in Chino Hills. Sentenced to death, Cooper's trial took place in
an atmosphere of racial hatred — for example, an effigy of a monkey in a
noose with a sign reading "Hang the N*****!" was hung outside the venue
of his preliminary hearing.

Take action to see that Kevin Cooper's death sentence is commuted immediately.

Cooper has consistently maintained his innocence.

Following
his trial, five federal judges said: "There is no way to say this
politely. The district court failed to provide Cooper a fair hearing."

Since 2004, a dozen federal appellate judges have indicated their doubts about his guilt.

Tell California authorities: The death penalty carries the risk of irrevocable error. Kevin Cooper's sentence must be commuted.

In
2009, Cooper came just eight hours shy of being executed for a crime
that he may not have committed. Stand with me today in reminding the
state of California that the death penalty is irreversible — Kevin
Cooper's sentence must be commuted immediately.

Kevin
Cooper's case will be the subject of a new episode of CNN's "Death Row
Stories" airing on Sunday, July 26 at 7 p.m. PDT. The program will be
repeated at 10 p.m. PDT. The episode, created by executive producers
Robert Redford and Alex Gibney, will explore how Kevin Cooper was framed
by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department and District
Attorney.Viewers on the east coast can see the program at 10 p.m. EDT
and it will be rebroadcast at 1 a.m. EDT on July 27. Viewers in the
Central Time zone can see it at 9 p.m. and midnight CDT. Viewers in the
Mountain Time zone can see it at 8 p.m. and ll p.m MDT. It will be aired
on CNN again during the following week and will also be able to be
viewed on CNN's "Death Row Stories" website.

Kevin Cooper: An Innocent Victim of Racist Frame-Up - from the Fact Sheet at: www.freekevincooper.org
Kevin
Cooper is an African-American man who was wrongly convicted and
sentenced to death in 1985 for the gruesome murders of a white family in
Chino Hills, California: Doug and Peggy Ryen and their daughter Jessica
and their house- guest Christopher Hughes. The Ryens' 8 year old son
Josh, also attacked, was left for dead but survived.

Convicted
in an atmosphere of racial hatred in San Bernardino County CA, Kevin
Cooper remains under a threat of imminent execution in San Quentin. He
has never received a fair hearing on his claim of innocence. In a
dissenting opinion in 2009, five federal judges of the Ninth Circuit
Court of Appeals signed a 82 page dissenting opinion that begins: "The
State of California may be about to execute an innocent man." 565 F.3d
581.

There is significant evidence that exonerates Mr. Cooper and points toward other suspects:


The coroner who investigated the Ryen murders concluded that the
murders took four minutes at most and that the murder weapons were a
hatchet, a long knife, an ice pick and perhaps a second knife. How could
a single person, in four or fewer minutes, wield three or four weapons,
and inflict over 140 wounds on five people, two of whom were adults
(including a 200 pound ex-marine) who had loaded weapons near their
bedsides?

 The sole surviving victim of the murders,
Josh Ryen, told police and hospital staff within hours of the murders
that the culprits were "three white men." Josh Ryen repeated this
statement in the days following the crimes. When he twice saw Mr.
Cooper's picture on TV as the suspected attacker, Josh Ryen said "that's
not the man who did it."

 Josh Ryen's description of
the killers was corroborated by two witnesses who were driving near the
Ryens' home the night of the murders. They reported seeing three white
men in a station wagon matching the description of the Ryens' car
speeding away from the direction of the Ryens' home.


These descriptions were corroborated by testimony of several employees
and patrons of a bar close to the Ryens' home, who saw three white men
enter the bar around midnight the night of the murders, two of whom were
covered in blood, and one of whom was wearing coveralls.


The identity of the real killers was further corroborated by a woman
who, shortly after the murders were discovered, alerted the sheriff's
department that her boyfriend, a convicted murderer, left
blood-spattered coveralls at her home the night of the murders. She also
reported that her boyfriend had been wearing a tan t-shirt matching a
tan t-shirt with Doug Ryen's blood on it recovered near the bar. She
also reported that her boyfriend owned a hatchet matching the one
recovered near the scene of the crime, which she noted was missing in
the days following the murders; it never reappeared; further, her sister
saw that boyfriend and two other white men in a vehicle that could have
been the Ryens' car on the night of the murders.

Lacking
a motive to ascribe to Mr. Cooper for the crimes, the prosecution
claimed that Mr. Cooper, who had earlier walked away from custody at a
minimum security prison, stole the Ryens' car to escape to Mexico. But
the Ryens had left the keys in both their cars (which were parked in the
driveway), so there was no need to kill them to steal their car. The
prosecution also claimed that Mr. Cooper needed money, but money and
credit cards were found untouched and in plain sight at the murder
scene.

The jury in 1985 deliberated for seven days
before finding Mr. Cooper guilty. One juror later said that if there had
been one less piece of evidence, the jury would not have voted to
convict.

The evidence the prosecution presented at
trial tying Mr. Cooper to the crime scene has all been
discredited… (Continue reading this document at:
http://www.savekevincooper.org/_new_freekevincooperdotorg/TEST/Scripts/DataLibraries/upload/KC_FactSheet_2014.pdf)

This message from the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal. July 2015

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

For
Immediate Release – Thursday, October 29, 2015

Solitary Prisoners’ Lawyers Slam CDCR
for Sleep
Deprivation

Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition

SAN FRANCISCO
– Yesterday, lawyers for prisoners in the class action case Ashker v.
Brown submitted a letter condemning Pelican Bay prison guards’ “wellness
checks,” which have widely been viewed as sleep deprivation. The letter
was submitted to United States Magistrate Judge Nandor Vadas, and calls
on the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR)
to put an end to the checks.

Last month, prisoners achieved a
historic victory in the settlement of Ashker v. Brown where the
indefinite long term solitary confinement was effectively ended in
California, with Magistrate Judge Vadas currently monitoring
implementation of the settlement terms.

The guards at Pelican bay
Security Housing Units have been conducting disruptive cell checks
every 30 minutes around the clock for three months, causing prisoners
widespread sleep disruption. The process is loud and according to
prisoners, “the method and noise from the checks is torture.”

Attorneys
representing Pelican Bay SHU prisoners have just completed extensive
interviews with prisoners who demand that “the every 30-minute checks
have to be stopped or people are going to get sick or worse.” In
addition, they report that regular prison programs have been negatively
impacted.

“To sleep is a fundamental human right,” said Anne
Weills, a member of the prisoners’ legal team and one of the attorneys
who conducted the interviews with prisoners in Pelican Bay. “To take
away such a basic human right amounts to severe torture, adding to the
already torturous conditions of being in solitary confinement.”

Most
prisoners report low energy, exhaustion and fatigue. Most state that
they have trouble concentrating. They try to read, but they nod off
and/or can’t remember what they have read. Their writing is much slower
(“I can’t think to write”), and describe the constant welfare checks as
having a negative impact on their mental state.

While this
recent attorney survey was specifically focusing on sleep deprivation
and its effects, prisoners volunteered information about the negative
impact of these frequent checks: yard policy and practice has reduced
access to recreation, access to showers has been reduced, programs and
meals are being delayed, and property for those newly transferred to
Pelican Bay is still being delayed and withheld.

Sleep
deprivation constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Prisoners and
their attorneys are demanding that these checks be halted.

Free Albert Woodfox!

On
June 8, 2015 a federal judge granted Louisiana prisoner Albert Woodfox
unconditional release. Albert's conviction had already been overturned
three times - most recently in 2013 - yet every time the state has
appealed.

Today, Albert is still behind
bars after spending four decades in cruel, unjust solitary confinement.
He believes that he and fellow prisoners, Herman Wallace and Robert
King, were first placed in solitary confinement in retaliation for their
activism. All three men were members of the Black Panther Party.
Together, they came to be known as the Angola 3.

It is
time for the State of Louisiana to stop standing in the way of justice.
Call on Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal to ensure Albert's cruel and
unjust confinement is not his legacy. Learn more

Amnesty for all those arrested demanding justice for Freddie Gray!

Amnesty for ALL those arresteddemanding justice for Freddie Gray!

Sign and distribute the petition to drop the charges!Spread this effort with #Amnesty4Baltimore

"A riot is the language of the unheard" — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

An
estimated 300 people have been arrested in Baltimore in the last two
weeks. Many have been brutalized, beaten and pepper-sprayed by police in
the streets, and held for days in inhumane conditions. Those arrested
include journalists, medics and legal observers.

One
individual arrested for property destruction of a police vehicle is now
facing life in prison and is being held on $500,000 bail. That's
$150,000 more than the officer charged with the murder of Freddie Gray.

The
legal system has made it clear that they care more about broken windows
than broken necks; more about a CVS than the lives of Baltimore's Black
residents.

They showed no hesitation in arresting Baltimore's
protesters and rebels, and sending in the National Guard, but took 19
days to put a single one of the killer cops in handcuffs. This was the
outrageous double standard that led to the Baltimore Uprising.

I
stand in solidarity with those in Baltimore who are demanding that all
charges be dropped against those who rose up against racism, police
brutality, oppressive social conditions and delay of justice in the case
of Freddie Gray. The whole world now recognizes that were it not for
this powerful grassroots movement, in all its forms, there would be no
indictment.

It is an outrage that peaceful
protesters have been brutalized, beaten and pepper-sprayed by police in
the streets, and held for days in inhumane conditions. Those arrested
include journalists and legal observers.

Even the youth
who are charged with property destruction and looting should be given
an amnesty. There is no reason a teenager -- provoked by racists and
justifiably angry -- should be facing life in prison for breaking the
windows of a police car.

The City of Baltimore should
work to rectify the conditions that led to this Uprising, rather than
criminalizing those who took action in response to those conditions.
Drop the charges now!

Sincerely,
[add your name below]

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

CANCEL ALL STUDENT DEBT!

Sign the Petition:

http://cancelallstudentdebt.com/?code=kos

Dear President Obama, Senators, and Members of Congress:

Americans
now owe $1.3 trillion in student debt. Eighty-six percent of that money
is owed to the United States government. This is a crushing burden for
more than 40 million Americans and their families.

I urge you to take immediate action to forgive all student debt, public and private.

URGENT ALERT

MAJOR TILLERY IN

HOSPITAL!

Sometime
yesterday Major Tillery, a 65 year-old man, was rushed to the hospital
from SCI Frackville. Since hearing this yesterday evening through the
prison grapevine, family and attorney have tried to learn more.

Today,
the only thing we have been told by Superintendent Brenda Tritt is that
this was “a routine admission” and Major is “receiving the appropriate
medical attention.” Nothing more to to Major Tillery’s daughter, Kamilah
Iddeen--not the hospital, the reason for rushing Major to the hospital,
no agreement for family and legal visits.
Major Tillery has liver
disease and a liver shunt, arthritis with chronic back and hip pain,
and a festering skin rash and open sores. Major Tillery has filed
grievance after grievance objecting to the lack of medical treatment and
refusal to renew needed medical devices.

Major Tillery
has been imprisoned for 30 years, 25 in the hole and in the most severe
super max prisons in the country. For prison officials his crime is his
advocacy for other prisoners and leadership capabilities, including
challenging abusive prison conditions and inadequate medical treatment.
He has been subject to retaliation by prison authorities since he began
his successful legal effort to stop the overcrowding and curb the
inhumane conditions in SCI Pittsburgh over 25 years ago. See, Tillery v.
Owens (1990)

In early 2015, Major complained about the
spreading skin disease at SCI Mahanoy, where he was then imprisoned. He
stood up for Mumia Abu-Jamal and other prisoners who were suffering
from this. For his acts of solidarity, Major Tillery was transferred to
SCI Frackville and then put in the hole on falsified charges. After four
months with limited food rations, deprived of commissary, contact
visits and allowed less than one-hour a day of exercise, Major was
released into general population. This was two months less than his
prison sentence of six months in the hole – the prison’s response to an
international campaign for Major!

Now Major is in the
hospital. He is not being allowed contact with his family or attorney.
They are not being given any real information on his condition.

Call prison officials and demand:
Visits
with Major Tillery by his family and lawyer. Full medical information
and treatment should be provided to his family and lawyer.
Stop
the Retaliation Against Major Tillery. He should be exonerated for the
false charges of drug possession and this misconduct removed from his
record.
Transfer Major Tillery from SCI Frackville back to SCI
Mahanoy or to another facility in eastern Pennsylvania to remain near
his family.

Last
night Mumia got notice that the final appeal of his PA Department of
Corrections grievance was denied. Listen to his reaction here.

This denial comes on top of the magistrate Judge’s proposal to deny Mumia's right to treatment last week.

Remember--
one of the reasons the Judge gave was her claim that Mumia had not
"exhausted his administrative remedies" or received a final denial of
his request for care. Now he has received that denial.

We
know that withholding Mumia’s care is immoral and illegal. We are
confident that we will win this battle in court- but we can’t do it
alone.

We have 3 days left to raise $2,948 to support Mumia’s legal team in securing his right to hepatitis C treatment!

If
you have already joined us, we’re inviting you to ask one friend to
match your gift. We need about 50 more freedom fighters to join us to
reach our goal— and we want you to make that happen with us!

If you haven’t given yet- now is the time to make a contribution for Mumia. Will you join us?

Health care is a human right- for Mumia, and for all prisoners. Let's prove it.‪ #freemumia #fight4mumia

Reply
directly to this email to respond to the campaign owner, Prison Radio .
Visit the campaign page to view all comments and updates for this
project.

Help spread the word about the campaign!

PRISONRADIO.ORG

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson
Updates from the New "Team Free Lorenzo Johnson":
Thank
you all for your relentless effort in the fight against wrongful
convictions and your determination to stand behind Lorenzo.

To
garner even more support for Lorenzo Johnson, we have been hard at work
updating the website and developing an even more formidable and
dedicated team. Please take a moment to visit the new site here.

During
the month of July, Lorenzo wrote two new articles for The Huffington
Post titled "When Prosecutors Deny Justice for the Innocent," and "Hurry
Up and Wait for Justice: The Struggle of Innocent Prisoners." In these
articles, Lorenzo discusses the flaws in the criminal justice system,
which he deems is a "serious problem in this country."

Lastly, Lorenzo has a message to you all.

A Letter from Lorenzo:

July 23, 2015
Dauphin County Prison
Harrisburg, PA

Dear Supporters,

I
hope all is well with everyone and your families. As for myself, I'm
still on my journey in pursuit of my vindication. Sorry for my website
being shut down for a couple of weeks. It was being transferred to a new
provider and management. I'm back and will do my best to keep
everything up to speed with what's taking place.

I
would like to thank ALL of my loyal supporters in the U.S. and in the
MANY different counties that have signed on to support my innocence.
Thanks for all of the letters, emails, photos, etc. Like I always say, I
get energy to carry on and inspiration hearing form you, please stay
engaged in my struggle.

As of this moment, nothing has
changed, but – the continued delay tactics are constantly being used by
my prosecutor, Deputy Attorney General William Stoycos. With the
mounting of evidence that supports my innocence and police and
prosecution misconduct claims that is steadily piling up, you would
think that I would be having a couple of evidentiary hearings on my
actual innocence appeal that have been pending since August 5, 2013.

At
the time of this writing, I've been moved from SCI-Mahanoy to Dauphin
County Prison and locked down for 23 hours and 40 minutes a day. In the
20 minutes I get to come out, I get to take a shower and make a short
call. Prosecutor Stoycos had me moved so I can be a witness in his
attempt to have my codefendant Corey Walker's attorney removed from
representing him. How dare he call into question an attorney who is
seeking justice for her client, when prosecutor Stoycos himself violated
multiple constitutional rights of mine and Mr. Walker, that led to us
being in prison for 20 years and counting.

Prosecutor
Stoycos is continuously abusing his power and his endless resources he
has at his disposal. He is not tough on crime, he's tough on Innocent
Prisoners. Prosecutor Stoycos is doing everything in his power to
prevent justice from taking place. I encourage everyone to continue to
speak out against my nightmare, invite others to get involved by going
to my website and signing my Freedom Petition and whatever else they're
willing to do.

On a positive note, I just enrolled in
warehouse management trade and started on July 13th. Unfortunately,
you're only allowed to miss a couple of days and Prosecutor Stoycos had
me temporarily transferred on July 14th … It's extremely hard on Lifers
to get into these trades due to the fact that Lifers are placed at the
back of the list of ALL vocational classes. I try to further my
education every chance I get, so when I do come home, I will be
certified in different work.

The month of the hearing
has come and left, without me being brought to the courthouse … I'm one
of MANY innocent prisoners who endures this non-stop madness in our
pursuit of Justice and Freedom. Now that my webpage is almost caught up
to speed, I promise prompt updates and as everyone knows that contacted
me directly, I personally reply to those in the states and out of the
country. For those who can make a financial contribution, everything
counts. Take care and let's continue to fight until we achieve Freedom,
Justice, and Equality for all innocent prisoners.

"The Pain Within"

Free the Innocent
Lorenzo "Cat" Johnson

[Note: Lorenzo has since been transferred back to SCI Mahanoy and can be reached at his usual address.]

Thank
you all for reading this message and please take the time to visit the
new website and contribute to Lorenzo's campaign for freedom!

On
December 15, 2014 the Rev. Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor, Michigan
was thrown into prison for 2.5 to 10 years. This 66-year-old leading
African American activist was tried and convicted in front of an
all-white jury and racist white judge and prosecutor for supposedly
altering 5 dates on a recall petition against the mayor of Benton
Harbor.

The prosecutor, with the judge's approval,
repeatedly told the jury "you don't need evidence to convict Mr.
Pinkney." And ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE WAS EVER PRESENTED THAT TIED REV.
PINKNEY TO THE 'ALTERED' PETITIONS. Rev. Pinkney was immediately led
away in handcuffs and thrown into Jackson Prison.

This is an outrageous charge. It is an outrageous conviction. It is an even more outrageous sentence! It must be appealed.

With your help supporters need to raise $20,000 for Rev. Pinkney's appeal.

Checks
can be made out to BANCO (Black Autonomy Network Community
Organization). This is the organization founded by Rev. Pinkney. Mail
them to: Mrs. Dorothy Pinkney, 1940 Union Street, Benton Harbor, MI
49022.

Donations can be accepted on-line at bhbanco.org – press the donate button.

For information on the decade long campaign to destroy Rev. Pinkney go to bhbanco.org and workers.org(search "Pinkney").

I
am now in Marquette prison over 15 hours from wife and family, sitting
in prison for a crime that was never committed. Judge Schrock and Mike
Sepic both admitted there was no evidence against me but now I sit in
prison facing 30 months. Schrock actually stated that he wanted to make
an example out of me. (to scare Benton Harbor residents even more...)
ONLY IN AMERICA. I now have an army to help fight Berrien County. When I
arrived at Jackson state prison on Dec. 15, I met several hundred
people from Detroit, Flint, Kalamazoo, and Grand Rapids. Some people
recognized me. There was an outstanding amount of support given by the
prison inmates. When I was transported to Marquette Prison it took 2
days. The prisoners knew who I was. One of the guards looked me up on
the internet and said, "who would believe Berrien County is this
racist."

Background to Campaign to free Rev. Pinkney

Michigan
political prisoner the Rev. Edward Pinkney is a victim of racist
injustice. He was sentenced to 30 months to 10 years for supposedly
changing the dates on 5 signatures on a petition to recall Benton Harbor
Mayor James Hightower.

No material or circumstantial
evidence was presented at the trial that would implicate Pinkney in the
purported5 felonies. Many believe that Pinkney, a Berrien County
activist and leader of the Black Autonomy Network Community Organization
(BANCO), is being punished by local authorities for opposing the
corporate plans of Whirlpool Corp, headquartered in Benton Harbor,
Michigan.

In 2012, Pinkney and BANCO led an "Occupy the
PGA [Professional Golfers' Association of America]" demonstration
against a world-renowned golf tournament held at the newly created Jack
Nicklaus Signature Golf Course on the shoreline of Lake Michigan. The
course was carved out of Jean Klock Park, which had been donated to the
city of Benton Harbor decades ago.

Berrien County
officials were determined to defeat the recall campaign against Mayor
Hightower, who opposed a program that would have taxed local
corporations in order to create jobs and improve conditions in Benton
Harbor, a majority African-American municipality. Like other Michigan
cities, it has been devastated by widespread poverty and unemployment.

The
Benton Harbor corporate power structure has used similar fraudulent
charges to stop past efforts to recall or vote out of office the racist
white officials, from mayor, judges, prosecutors in a majority Black
city. Rev Pinkney who always quotes scripture, as many Christian
ministers do, was even convicted for quoting scripture in a newspaper
column. This outrageous conviction was overturned on appeal. We must do
this again!

To sign the petition in support of the Rev. Edward Pinkney, log on to: tinyurl.com/ps4lwyn.

New Action--write letters to DoD officials requesting clemency for Chelsea!

Secretary of the Army John McHugh

President Obama has delegated review of Chelsea Manning's clemency appeal to individuals within the Department of Defense.

Please
write them to express your support for heroic WikiLeaks' whistle-blower
former US Army intelligence analyst PFC Chelsea Manning's release from
military prison.

It is important that each of these
authorities realize the wide support that Chelsea (formerly Bradley)
Manning enjoys worldwide. They need to be reminded that millions
understand that Manning is a political prisoner, imprisoned for
following her conscience. While it is highly unlikely that any of these
individuals would independently move to release Manning, a reduction in
Manning's outrageous 35-year prison sentence is a possibility at this
stage.

The
letter should focus on your support for Chelsea Manning, and especially
why you believe justice will be served if Chelsea Manning's sentence is
reduced. The letter should NOT be anti-military as this will be
unlikely to help.

A suggested message: "Chelsea Manning
has been punished enough for violating military regulations in the
course of being true to her conscience. I urge you to use your
authorityto reduce Pvt. Manning's sentence to time served." Beyond that
general message, feel free to personalize the details as to why you
believe Chelsea deserves clemency.

Consider composing
your letter on personalized letterhead -you can create this yourself
(here are templates and some tips for doing that).

A comment on this post will NOT be seen by DoD authorities–please send your letters to the addresses above

This
clemency petition is separate from Chelsea Manning's upcoming appeal
before the US Army Court of Criminal Appeals next year, where Manning's
new attorney Nancy Hollander will have an opportunity to highlight the
prosecution's—and the trial judge's—misconduct during last year's trial
at Ft. Meade, Maryland.

Help us continue to cover 100% of Chelsea's legal fees at this critical stage!

2) Los Angeles Police Urged to Review Use of Force After ‘Alarming’ Rise in Shootings
"Police departments across the country are facing increased scrutiny of
their use of force. Just Tuesday, Southern California Public Radio, a
local radio station, published an investigation detailing nearly 400 police shootings in Los Angeles in recent years, none of which have been prosecuted as homicides."

11) Smoking Ban Proposal a Surprise to Some Public Housing Tenants
"Last year, the Police Department stepped up its enforcement of authority
rules, which prohibit noncriminal activities such as barbecuing without
a permit and “lingering” in common areas."

ATLANTA
— An 8-year-old boy has been charged with murder in Birmingham, Ala.,
where the police said Tuesday that he had “viciously attacked” a toddler
whose mother had left children alone while she visited one of the
city’s nightclubs.

The authorities announced their intention to
prosecute the boy, who was not identified, nearly a month after the
death of 1-year-old Kelci Lewis. The child was found unresponsive on
Oct. 11, and a police spokesman said Tuesday that investigators believed
the older boy had become violent because the toddler would not stop
crying.

“The 8-year-old just recklessly, viciously dealt with the
1-year-old,” the spokesman, Lt. Sean Edwards, said at a news conference
on Tuesday, one day after the girl’s mother surrendered to the
authorities and was charged with manslaughter.

Lieutenant Edwards
said that the mother, Katerra M. Lewis, and a friend had left the home
where they were staying late on Oct. 10. Six children, none of them
older than 8, remained at the home, and while Ms. Lewis was away, the
lieutenant said, her daughter began to cry.

Soon, the police
said, the boy began to beat the girl, to whom he was not related. She
was found and pronounced dead the next morning, more than eight hours
after investigators believe Ms. Lewis returned to the home.

The police said the girl had suffered “severe head trauma, as well as major internal organ damage.”

The Jefferson County district attorney’s office declined to comment on Tuesday, and Ms. Lewis could not be reached.

Ms. Lewis was released from jail on Monday after posting a $15,000 bond, according to a Sheriff’s Office record. She was held, the agency said, for less than 90 minutes.

Lieutenant
Edwards said officials thought that the charge against Ms. Lewis might
signal to other parents that they could be prosecuted in similar cases.

“Most
mothers that I know would have never done something like this,”
Lieutenant Edwards said, “but it definitely sends the message that this
type of behavior, this type of irresponsibility on behalf of a parent is
totally unacceptable.”

Lieutenant Edwards said the Alabama
Department of Human Resources had taken custody of the boy; the details
of his case are expected to remain confidential.

It is unusual,
but not unprecedented, for children to face serious charges in the
deaths of other children. Last month, the Tennessee authorities filed a first-degree murder charge against an 11-year-old boy in connection with the killing of his neighbor, who was 8.

The
charges against Ms. Lewis and the boy were the subject of wide
attention in Birmingham, a city of grit and crime, but also a place that
officials said had never before prosecuted such a young child for
murder.

“We’re still trying to process it as it relates to the
suspect,” said Lieutenant Edwards, who added, “It’s one of those cases
where it leaves everybody a little puzzled.”

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

2) Los Angeles Police Urged to Review Use of Force After ‘Alarming’ Rise in Shootings
"Police departments across the country are facing increased scrutiny of
their use of force. Just Tuesday, Southern California Public Radio, a
local radio station, published an investigation detailing nearly 400 police shootings in Los Angeles in recent years, none of which have been prosecuted as homicides."

LOS
ANGELES — Citing an “alarming” rise in shootings by police over the
last year, the civilian board that oversees the Los Angeles police
called on Tuesday for an extensive review of the department’s policies
on the use of force.The new president of the Los Angeles Police
Commission, Matt Johnson, said reducing officers’ use of force was one
of his top priorities for the department, on par with bringing down the
overall crime rate.

The number of shootings by the police so far
this year has nearly doubled, to 45 from 23 during the same period last
year, Mr. Johnson said. He added that, like other departments, the Los
Angeles police were facing “a crisis of confidence with minority
communities, particularly African-Americans,” in the wake of police
shootings of black civilians across the country.

“We must fully
commit to minimizing the number of use-of-force incidents,” Mr. Johnson
said. In addition to review of use-of force incidents, he called for an
examination, and possible expansion, of nonlethal options like Tasers
and beanbag shotguns.

The Los Angeles police spent more than a
decade under a federal consent decree after dozens of officers were
accused of corruption and evidence tampering. From 2001 until 2013, the
federal government imposed reforms on the police here, which helped the department move past a history that had often been checkered with officer abuse of the public.

It has come to be regarded by many authorities as a leader in community policing.

Mr.
Johnson’s comments on Tuesday acknowledged problems that police had
faced recently, after years of falling crime rates and praise from the
law enforcement community. Homicides, violent crime and property crime
have all increased by at least 10 percent so far in 2015 compared with
last year. August was the deadliest month since 2007, with 39 homicides,
Mr. Johnson said.

“It’s concerning to me,” Steve Soboroff,
another member of the police commission, said of the rising crime
numbers. “The job of being a police officer is changing dramatically,
with all these modifications in training, dealing with the mentally ill,
use of force.”

But he said 20 to 30 factors were contributing to
the rising crime rate, such as changing state laws that have let many
minor drug offenders stay out of prison.

“I don’t attribute it to something wrong with the Police Department,” he said.

The Los Angeles police chief, Charlie Beck, and the department did not comment on the commission’s action Tuesday.

Police
departments across the country are facing increased scrutiny of their
use of force. Just Tuesday, Southern California Public Radio, a local
radio station, published an investigation detailing nearly 400 police shootings in Los Angeles in recent years, none of which have been prosecuted as homicides.

“If
there’s one major department that has transformed itself in the last 10
years, it’s the Los Angeles Police Department,” said Chuck Wexler, the
executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum. “But every
police department in the country is under increased scrutiny because of
what we’ve seen in the last year. They have to continue to make progress
and look for ways to de-escalate to maintain their leadership
position.”

Connie Rice, a civil rights lawyer who has worked to
help carry out reforms at the Los Angeles Police Department over the
last decade, said it was encouraging that police officials were looking
at the complication question of how to deal with use of force.

“Right
now, police have a down-to-the-bone belief that they have to watch
suspects’ hands, and if the hands move, they can shoot,” Ms. Rice said.
“We are going to have to work this through with them, and show them why
that isn’t so.”

In an interview after his remarks on Tuesday, Mr.
Johnson said he took his position on the police commission “as a direct
response to the national conversation that’s going on regarding police
use of force.”

“Part one is greater transparency,” he said. That
will include not only greater analysis of use-of-force data, but also
body cameras, which will soon be standard for all Los Angeles police
officers.

“But this is a first step, not an end in itself,” Mr.
Johnson said. “This will hopefully give us the tools needed to continue
significant reform.”

WASHINGTON
— Facing a Supreme Court generally hostile to class actions, thousands
of workers at an Iowa pork processing plant may nevertheless have found a narrow path toward victory at an argument on Tuesday,
one that would allow them to band together in a single lawsuit seeking
overtime pay.Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, whose vote will probably prove
crucial, suggested that the defendant, Tyson Foods, had committed
litigation missteps that could doom its case. “I just don’t understand
your arguments,” Justice Kennedy told Carter G. Phillips, a lawyer for
the company.

Justice Kennedy added that plaintiffs seeking to
recover overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act may use
statistics to prove their case that could not be used in other kinds of
class-action suits.The workers sought to be paid for the time they had
spent putting on and taking off protective gear and other work-related
functions. Tyson had not kept records, and the workers tried to prove
their damages based on an expert witness’s statistical inferences from
hundreds of videotaped observations of how long it took the workers to
get ready.

Tyson objected, saying that approach was at odds with the court’s 2011 decision in Wal-Mart Stores v. Dukes, an employment discrimination class action that rejected what it called “trial by formula.”

The
Tyson workers did not have enough in common to pursue their claims
together, Mr. Phillips said. The case, he said, concerned “more than 400
jobs, which required widely differing amounts of time to perform their
donning, doffing and washing tasks.”

“All you’ve got,” he said,
“is averaging across the widest imaginable range of employees performing
different tasks with different requirements.”

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg responded that the basic tasks “weren’t all that different.”

David
C. Frederick, a lawyer for the workers, said most of the equipment was
quite similar, too. “We’re talking about a difference between a Kevlar
belly guard and a Plexiglas belly guard or a mesh, metal mesh belly
guard,” he said. “We’re talking about the same basic kinds of gear.
We’re talking about different kinds of gloves.”

Mr. Frederick added that “the reason averaging works is because the workers were rotating among different assignments.”

Justice Kennedy asked whether it was too burdensome to require employers to keep track of the various work-related tasks.

Mr.
Frederick responded that there was an easy solution. “Had they put the
punch clock right outside the locker room so that the workers, as soon
as they went in the locker room and punched in,” he said, “this problem
would have been eliminated.”

Several justices said that cases concerning overtime pay were different from other class actions, pointing to a 1946 precedent, Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery.
“Where the employer’s records are inaccurate or inadequate and the
employee cannot offer convincing substitutes,” the court said in 1946,
it is enough for workers to rely on “sufficient evidence to show the
amount and extent of that work as a matter of just and reasonable
inference.”

In Tuesday’s case, Tyson Foods v. Bouaphakeo, No.
14-1146, a judge allowed more than 3,000 workers to band together,
awarding them about $6 million. It was not clear how the money would be
distributed.

Mr. Phillips said that it was too late to allocate
that money in a sensible fashion. “You can’t unscramble this egg at this
point,” he said.

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. seemed to agree. “I don’t see how this can be done in other than a very slapdash fashion,” he said.

But
Justice Ginsburg wondered why this mattered to the company. “Why would
Tyson’s care?” she asked. “They have to pay the same amount of dollars.”

The
case is one of three heard by the court in the last month with the
potential to cut back on the availability of class actions. Last month,
in Campbell Ewald Company v. Gomez, No. 14-857, the court considered whether companies may pick off plaintiffs seeking to represent a class one by one by offering them individual settlements.

Last week, in Spokeo v. Robins, No. 13-1339, the court heard arguments over Congress’s ability to authorize lawsuits by plaintiffs who cannot prove they suffered a concrete injury.

By
the end of Tuesday’s argument, Justice Kennedy was asking questions
about what a decision in favor of the plaintiffs would look like, a sign
that he was looking for a way to write a narrow ruling. Mr. Frederick’s
answer did not satisfy him.

Elizabeth B. Prelogar, a lawyer for
the federal government who was arguing in support of the workers, seemed
to meet with more success.

“The jury was told in this case that
they could only rely on representative evidence if all of the employees
performed substantially similar activities,” she said, “and that
substantial similarity is what we think is the proper standard to
determine whether an inference here would be just and reasonable.”

The Justice Department said on Tuesday that there was insufficient
evidence to pursue federal criminal civil rights charges against a
former Milwaukee police officer in the death of an unarmed black man.
The officer, Christopher Manney, was fired after fatally shooting Dontre
Hamilton, 31, on April 30, 2014. “The evidence was insufficient to
prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Manney acted willfully with a bad
purpose to violate the law,” the Justice Department said. Mr. Hamilton,
who was mentally disabled, was shot 14 times during a struggle in Red
Arrow Park in downtown Milwaukee. Mr. Manney opened fire after Mr.
Hamilton took his baton and hit him, according to the authorities.
“Mistake, misperception, negligence or poor judgment are not sufficient
to establish a federal criminal civil rights violation,” the Justice
Department said. Police Chief Edward Flynn fired Mr. Manney in October
2014, saying he had failed to follow police policies when addressing
mentally ill people.

A judge on Tuesday dismissed charges against organizers of a Black Lives
Matter protest that drew thousands of demonstrators to the Mall of
America on Dec. 20, disrupting Christmas shopping. But Chief Judge Peter
Cahill of Hennepin County ruled that it was peaceful and “not
subversive.” Organizers of the protest had faced misdemeanor charges of
aiding and abetting trespass, aiding and abetting unlawful assembly, and
aiding and abetting disorderly conduct. In a 137-page decision, Judge
Cahill dismissed all charges against the 11 organizers, but left in
place trespass charges against some individual participants.

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

6) Greece Disrupted by First General Strike Under Syriza-Led Government

ATHENS
— Hundreds of thousands of Greeks walked off their jobs on Thursday to
protest austerity economics, as officials of the leftist-led government
wrangled with the country’s international creditors over the terms of
Greece’s third bailout. At least one Athens protest turned violent.The
24-hour walkout shut down public services, forced the cancellation of
flights and disrupted public transportation across the country. Ferries
remained moored in ports, hospitals were operating with reduced staff,
and museums and archaeological sites were closed.

An estimated
20,000 people joined three demonstrations in Athens, one organized by
the country’s two main labor unions, another by the Communist Party, and
the third drawing students and leftists, according to a police
spokesman.

Though the protests were mostly peaceful, a gathering
near the Parliament building in the early afternoon turned into a clash
between riot police officers and roughly 100 masked youths, who hurled
stones and firebombs. The riot police responded with tear gas, as a
police helicopter circled over the city center and crowds fled the acrid
smoke.

General strikes have been common in Greece in recent
years, as the country has struggled with the privations of recession,
high unemployment and the belt tightening the country’s foreign
creditors have demanded. But Thursday’s general strike was the first
under the Syriza-led government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

Mr.
Tsipras came to power in January on a promise of ending years of
austerity, but by summer he had agreed to an international bailout
program of 86 billion euros, or $92 billion — the country’s third rescue
package since 2010 — as the government was running out of money and
Greece was on the brink of leaving the euro currency union. To secure
the public’s reluctant support for the program, Mr. Tsipras called for
new elections and was returned to power by a wide margin in September on a pledge to enforce the new bailout while easing its impact on poorer Greeks.

Though
Mr. Tsipras succeeded in purging Syriza of radicals who had resisted a
compromise with creditors during his initial term, divisions remain in
his party over the issue. An indication of that deep rift was evident
this week as Syriza’s labor policy department called for “mass
participation” in Thursday’s strike and in the protest rallies planned
for Athens and other major cities.

The country’s two main labor
unions, which called the walkout, object to a recent barrage of economic
overhauls, including further cuts to pensions and tax increases, and
further budget-cutting measures that are in the works.

The
General Confederation of Greek Workers, which represents private sector
employees, accused the government of pursuing “policies of punishing
austerity, poverty and wretchedness.” It also called for “the mother of
all battles” against a new wave of austerity “that will further
downgrade the living standards of Greek society.”

Social
discontent has been growing as the government remains locked in talks
with the country’s international creditors over the economic changes
that must be enforced to unlock rescue loans. On Monday, eurozone
finance ministers said Greek authorities must do more before the
creditors can disburse a €2 billion loan payout and release an
additional €10 billion that has been earmarked in the bailout program
for the recapitalization of Greece’s struggling banks.

The
eurozone ministers gave Greece a week to bridge its differences with
lenders on a series of contentious measures. A big sticking point is the
level of protection that should be granted to Greek mortgage holders
who have fallen behind on payments. Athens, fearing social turmoil,
wants to ensure that thousands of Greeks do not lose their homes. But
because nonperforming loans are one of the biggest problems undermining
Greek banks, the creditors want to give the banks more flexibility on
when they can foreclose on home mortgages or declare business borrowers
to be in default.

Other snags in the creditor negotiations
include disagreement over a repayment program for Greek taxpayers who
are in arrears; lenders want stricter criteria for eligibility. Another
dispute involves how the government will make up for a budget shortfall
after a public outcry forced it to abandon a planned value-added tax on private education.

JERUSALEM
— About two dozen men wearing bulky jackets, woolen caps, hoodies and
checkered kaffiyehs barged into a hospital in the West Bank
city of Hebron before dawn on Thursday, pushing what appeared to be a
very pregnant woman in a wheelchair.But they were not headed to the
delivery ward.

The people caught on the hospital surveillance cameras
were, in fact, undercover Israeli security officers. About 10 minutes
later, the Israelis were on their way out, leaving behind a Palestinian
man whom they had fatally shot in the raid and wheeling out his cousin,
a wounded patient whom they had come to arrest, according to hospital
officials.

The raid at al-Ahli Hospital was the latest in a string of Israeli incursions into Palestinian
hospitals during the recent upsurge of violence, and proof, according
to Israeli officials, that there will be no safe haven for Palestinian
suspects. Hospital officials were livid.“Hospitals are supposed to be
the safest places on earth,” Jihad Shawar, the hospital director, told
the official Voice of Palestine Radio. He said the relatives of the two
cousins were “very angry.”

“They want to know how their sons
could be killed and arrested while in our hospital,” Mr. Shawar said.
“But what can our security men do when guns are pointed in their faces?”

The
Israeli military said in a statement that officers had arrested Azzam
Azat Shaaban Shalalda, 20, a resident of the village of Sair, near
Hebron.

Mr. Shalalda, they said, stabbed an Israeli civilian in
the chest in the West Bank last month, severely wounding him. As he
tried to flee, Mr. Shalalda was shot and wounded by his victim, but he
managed to reach the Ahli Hospital, where he was taken in for treatment.
He was in the surgery ward on the third floor when the raid occurred.

Referring
to Mr. Shalalda’s cousin, Abdallah Shalalda, 27, the military said that
during the hospital raid, “a suspect attacked the force, which
responded to the assault and fired at the attacker.”

The military described Mr. Shalalda’s family as “known Hamas operatives,” referring to the Islamic militant group.

Bassem
Natshe, the hospital’s public relations director, said by telephone
that he did not know whether Abdallah Shalalda had assaulted the Israeli
forces before he was shot; there is no indication that he was armed.
But, he said, there were at least 10 armed Israelis in the room who
should have been able to subdue and arrest him.

“They had their
fingers on the trigger,” Mr. Natshe said of the Israelis. “They
terrorized the hospital, shooting in the department. We are talking
about a hospital here, not a nightclub.”

According to hospital
officials’ accounts, the first Israelis arrived about 2:40 a.m. Four
people came in saying they had a pregnant woman in labor and were
directed to the obstetrics department on the second floor. A minute
later, the officials said, about 25 security officers disguised in
civilian clothes rushed in and went straight to the third floor, where
Azzam Shalalda was recovering in the surgery ward.

Mr. Shalalda’s
brother was asleep in the bed next to him, and he was immediately
handcuffed to the bed frame. Abdallah, their cousin, came out of the
bathroom and was shot five times in the head and chest. The hospital
staff tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate him.

Then the forces
whisked away Azzam Shalalda. Hospital officials said that he had arrived
last month in critical condition, having been shot several times in the
neck and stomach, and that he had undergone several operations.
Abdallah Shalalda and Azzam’s brother were not patients, but had been
staying overnight with Azzam in the hospital room, officials said,
possibly to protect him.

The “pregnant woman” was presumably a
male officer in disguise. From the surveillance camera footage, it
appeared that at least two more of the Israelis were disguised as women,
one of them enveloped in a flowing black robe and veil.

The
arrest raid was a joint operation of the Israeli military, the Shin Bet
security agency and special police forces. Shin Bet said in a statement
after the raid, “The security establishment will not permit safe refuge
for terror operatives, anywhere.”

In a similar raid last month,
undercover Israeli forces entered a hospital in Nablus, in the northern
West Bank, and snatched a suspect in a fatal shooting that killed an Israeli couple,
Eitam and Naama Henkin, as they drove with their four children in the
West Bank. The suspect was accidentally shot and wounded by another
gunman at the scene of the attack.

In addition, Israeli police
and special forces have repeatedly raided al-Maqassed Hospital on the
Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem and have searched other Palestinian
clinics in the city, mostly looking for files and information on
patients wounded by the security forces during the recent wave of
violence, or those accompanying them, according to medical officials.

In
one case, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross in
Jerusalem, a standoff between the hospital staff at Maqassed and
security forces seeking to re-enter the hospital culminated in the use
of tear gas and rubber bullets. A staff member and a patient were
injured.

After a Red Cross team visited the Ahli Hospital on
Thursday, a spokeswoman said it was “pursuing the matter with the
Israeli security services at the appropriate level.”

Special
units of the Israeli military and the police have long resorted to
disguise to carry out undercover operations in Palestinian cities and
villages, and for other special missions.

When they were in the
services, former Prime Minister Ehud Barak and the incumbent, Benjamin
Netanyahu, helped foil the 1972 hijacking of a Sabena airplane dressed
in mechanics’ overalls. Mr. Barak famously led a revenge killing
operation against Palestinian guerrillas in Lebanon while dressed as a
woman.

In a more embarrassing episode for Israel,
the police in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, released
closed-circuit TV footage of people they said were Israeli Mossad agents
who assassinated a senior Hamas commander,
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, in a Dubai hotel in 2010. Some of the agents were
captured on camera wearing ill-fitting wigs, dressed in sports clothes
and holding tennis rackets.

In
a setback for opponents of capital punishment, a federal appeals panel
in California on Thursday overturned a 2014 ruling that could have
voided the death sentences of hundreds of prisoners in the state.Last
year, in a decision seen by death penalty foes as pathbreaking, a
federal district judge held that California’s multistaged system for
reviewing death sentences was so afflicted with delays and arbitrariness
that it violated the Eighth Amendment ban on “cruel and unusual
punishment.”

Had it survived the legal challenge, that finding
would have called into question the death sentences of hundreds of
prisoners on death row in California and given energy to similar
arguments in other states.But on Thursday, a three-judge panel of the
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the 2014
decision was improper on technical grounds and overturned it. Citing
Supreme Court precedent, the panel said that in a habeas corpus
petition, as was filed on behalf of a condemned prisoner in this case,
the federal courts may not retroactively apply “new rules of
constitutional criminal procedure” to overrule a state criminal court’s
decision.

Many legal experts said the ruling was expected because of the strong procedural challenges that California prosecutors had raised, which included an argument that the inmate had failed, as required, to exhaust all his state court options.

But
through further state appeals of this case or others like it, some
said, the underlying argument about systemic dysfunction could remain a
potent one, eventually reaching the Supreme Court in an era of growing
questions about capital punishment.

“Today’s result is no
surprise, but the arguments have merit,” said Eric M. Freedman, a
professor of constitutional law at Hofstra University and a death
penalty opponent. Different kinds of motions in state court could keep
the issue alive and even open a more certain pathway back into the
federal courts, he said, characterizing the circuit court ruling as a
“speed bump.”

The argument that implementation of death sentences
has become unacceptably delayed and arbitrary is particularly strong in
the case of California, and Thursday’s ruling, which will probably be
appealed, is not going to result in executions anytime soon.

Of
more than 900 people condemned to die in California since 1978, when the
death penalty was reinstated, only 13 have been executed — a “random
few,” said Judge Cormac J. Carney, in Santa Ana, in the 2014 opinion
overturned Thursday.

Some inmates died on death row, while others
had their sentences altered. Currently, more than 740 prisoners in the
state await execution.

The case before the circuit court Thursday involved a habeas corpus
petition on behalf of Ernest Dewayne Jones, who was sentenced to death
in 1995 for rape and murder. In California, appeals and reviews of
capital cases normally drag on for more than two decades, in part
because it can take years for the state to appoint defense lawyers.
Executions have also been delayed in recent years because of disputes
over lethal drugs and protocols.

In arguments last August before
the federal appeals panel, calling on it to overturn Judge Carney’s
decision to vacate Mr. Jones’s death sentence, California prosecutors
not only said the case was flawed on procedural grounds but also
defended the state’s process of reviewing death sentences as
fundamentally fair. They said the delays resulted from its unusually
careful efforts to protect the rights of the condemned, and said there
was no evidence that the outcomes were random.

In the new decision, the appeals panel made it clear that it had not evaluated the underlying issues.

“Many
agree with the petitioner that California’s capital punishment system
is dysfunctional and that the delay between sentencing and execution in
California is extraordinary,” the opinion said.

But the purpose
of federal habeas corpus petitions, the appeals panel continued, “is to
ensure that state convictions comply with the federal law in existence
at the time the conviction became final.”

“Because petitioner
asks us to apply a novel constitutional rule, we may not assess the
substantive validity of his claim,” it concluded.

The plainclothes rookie Palm Beach Gardens police officer who fatally
shot a stranded motorist last month was fired Wednesday, the city
announced Thursday. Corey Jones, 31, a housing inspector and musician,
died Oct. 18 after his car broke down in the middle of the night off
Interstate 95 in Palm Beach County. Palm Beach Gardens Police officer
Nouman K. Raja was working a burglary detail when he approached Mr.
Jones’s car in an unmarked van. Mr. Raja told the authorities that Mr.
Jones confronted him with a gun, so the officer fired six times,
striking Mr. Jones three times as he fled. The officer came under
criticism for failing to show his badge, and because Mr. Jones had
acquired his gun legally. Mr. Raja, who joined the police department in
April, was still in his probationary period, making it easier for the
city to terminate his employment. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office are investigating the shooting.

Three
months ago, April Hoagland and Rebecca Peirce welcomed a baby girl into
their Utah home as foster parents. But this week, the couple was
ordered by a state judge to give the baby up. The reason he gave, the
couple said, is that they were lesbians.

The judge’s decision on
Tuesday took the couple by surprise, left the governor puzzled and had
the state agency overseeing child welfare cases trying to take action to
stop the order.

The couple, who are married and were approved
this year to be foster parents, had hoped to eventually adopt the
8-month-old girl who joined their household in August. But those plans
were upended during what was supposed to be a routine hearing to make
the foster arrangement more permanent.

Ms. Peirce said the
juvenile court judge, Scott Johansen, ordered the couple to hand over
the baby so that she could be raised in a home with heterosexual
parents. They were given seven days to comply.“He said in research he
has looked at, children don’t do very well in homosexual homes, they do
better in heterosexual homes,” Ms. Peirce said.

On Thursday, the
Division of Child and Family Services said the agency filed a motion
with Judge Johansen to stay his order. If he does not, it said it will
petition the court of appeals. A spokesman for the agency, Ashley
Sumner, said she believed it was the first case of its kind to challenge
the fostering and adoption rights of same-sex couples in Utah since a
federal appeals court last year overturned a voter-approved state ban on same-sex marriages.

“It’s
obviously really new to us,” Ms. Sumner said. Before the federal court
ruling, “same-sex couples were not allowed to adopt or foster in Utah.”

Ms. Sumner said the agency preferred to stick with its decision to place the child with Ms. Peirce and Ms. Hoagland.

“We
made the determination that this is a good placement, and we want to
continue that placement,” she said. “We don’t want to disrupt this
child’s life again.”

Judge Johansen did not provide details of
the research in court. A court spokeswoman said she was unable to
comment about the judge’s decision.

The couple, who are raising
two other children, ages 12 and 14, said they were planning to appeal
the decision. A lawyer for the couple said he had filed paperwork with
the court to try to stop the order.

Ms. Peirce, 34, said she and
Ms. Hoagland, 38, who married in October 2014, had talked about
fostering because of Ms. Peirce’s upbringing with foster sisters with
whom she remains close.

After having the required coursework and
home visits, the couple was licensed in March to be foster parents in
their home in Price, southeast of Salt Lake City. The baby girl moved in
on Aug. 12. At first, the baby “didn’t smile or respond,” but she has
thrived since, Ms. Peirce said. “Within those three months, she has
rolled over, she is crying and trying to talk,” she said. “She is very
animated.”

On Thursday, Gov. Gary R. Herbert, a Republican, said
he was puzzled by the ruling, adding that the judge should not “inject
his own personal beliefs and feelings” into his decisions.

“He may not like the law,” the governor said, “but he should follow the law.”

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

11) Smoking Ban Proposal a Surprise to Some Public Housing Tenants
"Last year, the Police Department stepped up its enforcement of authority
rules, which prohibit noncriminal activities such as barbecuing without
a permit and “lingering” in common areas."

With more than 400,000 listed tenants and a backlog of repair requests at its sprawling properties, the New York City Housing Authority has often relied on police officers to enforce the rules governing those who live in its buildings.The practice, already a flash point for criticism
from residents and their advocates, is likely to come under even
greater scrutiny if a proposed federal ban on smoking in public housing
is adopted.

Tenants, lawmakers and public housing experts were quick to raise concerns that enforcement of the ban — which was announced on Thursday by the Department of Housing and Urban Development
and would prohibit smoking in all indoor areas, including apartments —
could lead to new rounds of intrusive police practices in some of the
same minority neighborhoods where the Police Department’s stop-and-frisk
tactics were most heavily employed.“This ban gives the N.Y.P.D. a
greater license to annoy us,” said Clarence Jones, 65, a resident of the
Lexington Houses in the East Harlem section of Manhattan, who has
smoked since he was 20.

The ban would affect nearly one million
households across the country, including 178,000 in New York City, home
to the nation’s largest public housing authority. In interviews in the
Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, many housing authority tenants
said they were puzzled by the proposal. Some said that smoking was among
the least of their concerns.

“My apartment desperately needs a
paint job,” said Samuel Higgs, 60, who also smokes and was sharing a
bench outside the Lexington Houses with Mr. Jones. “My gas hasn’t worked
for a month. You’re not going to fix my gas and then tell me I can’t
smoke in my own house?”

Last year, the Police Department stepped
up its enforcement of authority rules, which prohibit noncriminal
activities such as barbecuing without a permit and “lingering”
in common areas. The push, which police officials said was a response
to tenant complaints, increased the number of reports of rule-breaking
being sent to the authority, known as Nycha. The city also settled a
federal suit this year involving the police practice of stopping,
questioning and, sometimes, arresting people for trespassing in public
housing buildings.

Housing authority officials say they do not
want the Police Department to play a role in enforcing the proposed
smoking ban. And federal authorities stressed that they did not want the
ban, which is meant to protect residents from the effects of secondhand
smoke, to be enforced through evictions.

More than 600 public
housing agencies, most of them in the West, Northwest and Northeast
regions of the country, have instituted smoking bans voluntarily. “So
far they’ve worked out well,” Julián Castro, the federal housing
secretary, said in an interview. “What we’ve heard is that they are
surprised how well residents have responded.”

Last year, after
soliciting feedback from agencies that had adopted smoke-free policies,
the federal housing department issued formal guidance recommending the
“graduated enforcement to assist residents with compliance and prevent
evictions.” Agencies with smoking bans in place said they had relied on
oral and written warnings for the first few lease violations, while
providing smoke-cessation materials to help those who wanted to quit. In
rare cases, the agencies said, repeat offenders ultimately received
eviction notices.

Still, many of those interviewed said they were
worried that the ban could increase the number of people being forced
from their homes. Violations of Nycha rules can form the basis for
eviction, though rarely are tenants evicted for a single noncriminal
infraction.

“We are very concerned,” said Judith Goldiner, the
attorney in charge of the Legal Aid Society’s civil law reform unit. “My
father died from cigarettes. But I don’t think that he should have lost
his home because he was a smoker.”

The Police Department assigns
officers to patrol the grounds of public housing developments as well
as inside buildings. As recently as the 1970s, housing officers spent
much of their time enforcing noncriminal authority rules, though the
practice diminished as crime rates rose. Now, officers are more likely
to use the rules as a pretext for talking to people they deem
suspicious, said Fritz Umbach, an associate professor at John Jay
College of Criminal Justice who has studied policing in New York’s
public housing.

“To the outside observer, it’s easy to imagine
that this will result in cops busting people left and right for smoking,
but that’s the least likely outcome,” he said. “It’s not as if the
rules of Nycha are remotely being enforced now. It’s incredibly spotty
and often strategic.”

The presence of officers acting as de facto
hall monitors inside housing developments differentiates the smoking
ban being proposed for public housing from those instituted by privately
owned apartment buildings, co-ops and condos. It was not clear on
Thursday what officers would be instructed to do if, under the ban, they
arrived on the floor of an authority building and smelled cigarette
smoke coming from an apartment. The Police Department said in a
statement that it could not “comment on a proposed Nycha regulation.”

“It’s
the latest excuse for overpolicing,” Councilman Ritchie Torres, a Bronx
Democrat who leads the City Council’s public housing committee, said.
“If the federal government is generally concerned about improving public
health, how about fixing roofs or removing mold?”

The city
already bans smoking at work sites and in public spaces, and Nycha
prohibits it in lobbies and hallways. For public housing residents
worried about secondhand smoke, an indoor smoking ban is the logical
next step.

“The smoke makes me sick,” said Dorothy Venning, 71, a tenant of 830 Amsterdam Avenue, a Nycha building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. “It gets in your clothes; it gets in your furniture.”

Ms.
Venning’s building began a voluntary effort to ban indoor smoking this
year, she and other residents said. Under a pilot program supported by
Nycha, 85 percent of 159 apartments signed a pledge to keep their homes
smoke-free.

Shirley Williams, president of the building’s
residents’ association and a former smoker, said tenants had succeeded
in enforcing the voluntary effort in hallways and the lobby, but not in
the privacy of people’s individual apartments.

Some public
housing tenants, including Jimmy Crowder, 59, objected to the proposed
ban for safety reasons. A 10-year resident of the Ingersoll Houses in
the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn, Mr. Crowder said his nephew, in his
20s, occasionally stayed with him and smoked cigars near an open
window. Better that than outside, Mr. Crowder said, particularly late at
night.

“Around here it’s always something going on,” he said. “There could be a crime going on or a shooting. It’s dangerous.”

Volkswagen,
trying to get to the bottom of its emissions-cheating scandal, on
Thursday pressured employees to tell what they know, announcing an
amnesty program for informants that will expire at the end of the
month.The company has yet to explain publicly who was responsible for
installing software in 11 million diesel vehicles that was designed to
disguise the output of nitrogen oxide, a pollutant harmful to the lungs.
Volkswagen also admitted, just last week,
that it underreported the levels of carbon dioxide produced by about
800,000 of its diesel and gasoline vehicles in Europe and that had it
exaggerated their fuel economy.

In a letter to employees on
Thursday, Herbert Diess, chief executive of the division that produces
Volkswagen brand cars, said people who provided information would not be
fired or face damage claims. Mr. Diess cautioned, though, that the
company could not shield employees from criminal charges.The amnesty
offer is valid through Nov. 30, Mr. Diess wrote, according to excerpts
from the letter reviewed by The New York Times. The offer applies only
to workers who are covered by collective bargaining agreements; it
excludes top management.

While corporate amnesty programs are
rare, the approach has been used successfully in Germany at least once
before. Siemens, an electronics and engineering company based in Munich,
used such an offer in 2008 to encourage employees to provide
information during an investigation into bribery of officials abroad. Dozens of employees came forward.

Legal
experts said it is unclear how often corporations in the United States
offer job amnesty to employees in investigations. That is because,
typically, there is little public reporting about the inquiry, the
investigations are conducted quietly within the company, and there is
often an effort not to alert large numbers of employees to avoid the
possible destruction of evidence.

“It is not a common practice,”
said Alexandra Wrage, president of Trace International, a company in
Annapolis, Md., that provides advice to companies on compliance issues.
“It’s a tacit admission, however, that the usual reporting channels have
been ineffective.”

By offering job amnesty, Volkswagen might
accomplish two things, said Mike Koehler, a law professor at Southern
Illinois University who conducted internal investigations for nearly a
decade while in private practice: Demonstrate to law-enforcement
agencies that it is pursuing all avenues in its internal investigation,
and reach out beyond the company’s executive ranks to better understand
what happened.

“The amnesty program is not so much designed for
the people who are viewed as culpable actors, but rather, for the
midlevel people who may have, without even knowing it, some relevant
information,” Mr. Koehler said. “That kind of information may be minor
in scope, but it’s the cumulative effect — the pieces of minor
information put together lead to a more defined picture for the
company.”

At Volkswagen, an internal whistle-blower was
responsible for uncovering the exaggerated carbon-dioxide and
fuel-economy claims, which the company disclosed last week. German news
media reports have said that internal investigators looking into the
emissions-cheating software, which came to light in September, have been
hampered by a reluctance among employees to come forward.

By
setting a tight deadline, Volkswagen may be trying to pressure people
with knowledge to speak up soon. The internal investigation is being
conducted by Jones Day, a law firm.

“Every single day counts,”
Mr. Diess wrote. “We are counting on your cooperation and knowledge as
our company’s employees to get to the bottom of the diesel and CO2
issue.”

Volkswagen previously had an internal ombudsman’s office
that employees could go to with concerns. The company did not have a
formal amnesty program until Thursday.